An invitation from the editor
This site has been live for some time now. Long enough for you to get a feel for what we’re about.
Public relations is an evolving and interesting field. We’re all learning, whether we’re students, practitioners, educators or academics.
We aim to bridge the gap between between study and practice and to encourage a culture of learning and development.
We do this through focusing on career development, by discussing questions of ethics and professionalism, by exploring and explaining scholarship, and by linking to news and commentary that we think will interest others. We do this by providing resources for learners and by encouraging you to consider training and qualifications.
That’s our purpose. You can judge whether we’re succeeding in this. But here are ten ways you can help us do this better – some without you even having to lift a finger. You’ll find the various contact details at the end of this post.
- We publish #ThisWeekinPR each Friday, a weekly summary of news and commentary. You can alert the editor to your posts – and to others you think noteworthy. If we’re connected on social media, I take your likes, shares and retweets into account when evaluating which posts to include.
- We consider your news for inclusion in our weekly round-up and your events for our calendar, so your news releases and pitches are welcome.
- We review new books, so publishers and authors are encouraged to keep us informed of new and forthcoming publications. We have reviews scheduled of new books by practitioners and by scholars. Capacity is the main constraint, so we not only want to hear about new books, but to hear from people who’d like to contribute one-off book reviews.
- We publish a regular column providing careers advice (Dear Dr Heather Yaxley). What challenges do you face? Can we help you – and others in similar positions – move forward?
- Education is changing. There are apprenticeships for school leavers, there are undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, professional qualifications, continuous professional development. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, and we hope to reflect as many experiences and perspectives as possible.
- Professionals are required to provide evidence to support their recommendations, so we report on research. We publish some examples of submissions for professional qualifications and encourage students to submit summaries of their dissertations for publication.
- Some of us are members of the CIPR. Others of the PRCA, IOIC, IABC and more. Do you welcome the choice provided in this competitive landscape, or do you feel that a profession requires a clearer and more consistent voice? We track professional body news and welcome more perspectives on this question.
- Our regular contributors are drawn from the network of PR Academy tutors, but we welcome guest posts from others.
- All professions are about people, but public relations people are particularly well connected. We’d like to profile more people at various stages of their careers and mark milestones (honours, senior appointments, retirements) and publish obituaries of those who have made noteworthy contributions to the field.
- Other publications have their lists of rising stars (‘thirty under thirty’). These lists are admirable, but they play to an impression that public relations is obsessed with youth. What about age and experience? What about longevity and durability? How about #50over50? We’re working on our own list – and welcome your nominations.